SARATOGA SPRINGS >> With the clock winding down and the game on the line, Saratoga Catholic’s boys basketball team doesn’t have one go-to player to take the last shot.

That’s not to say the Saints don’t have any players capable of coming through in the clutch. On the contrary, they have five or six who could win any given game and that’s just the way Coach Ken Mantia likes it.

“I think we do it as a team,” Mantia said. “These kids will get the ball to the hot guy. They’re not thinking, “It’s my turn, I need to shoot’ — they’ll move the basketball.”

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The Saints have put at least three players in double figures in Western Athletic Conference road wins against Canajoharie and Fort Plain, and take an undefeated 4-0, 6-0 record into Friday night’s 7:30 p.m. home game against Oppenheim-Ephratah-St. Johnsville (2-2, 3-3).

“Being balanced really helps our team,” said Saratoga Catholic senior Brian Hall, who’s second on the team in scoring at 10 points per game. “It makes us hard to scout. If one game Keegan (Murphy) goes off and the next game (it’s) Evan (Pescetti) or me or Luke (Spicer), it’s hard for a team to look at us and say, ‘that’s the guy we’re going to shut down’ because then the other five are just going to light you up.”

Spicer, a senior who is forth on the team in scoring, is one of several players who could potentially have higher averages if they were more selfish — or if they didn’t get to sit the bench in the second halves of several early season blowouts.

“I trust all of my teammates to make that shot,” Spicer said of which player would take a potential game-winning shot. “Fortunately we’ve had a few guys who’ve been hot the past few nights so we didn’t have to rely on one guy. That’s definitely one of our strengths, we’re equally spread.”

The confidence in all five Saratoga Catholic players on the court has been on display at the end of games recently.

“We can see at the end of games when we know people are going to be fouling us, everyone is willing to go to the line with confidence,” Mantia said. “No one has any fear. When it matters we’ve been making the foul shots.”

The Saints won their first four games by an average of 27 points — including non-league wins over Class A South Glens Falls and Class B Schuylerville — before they had to work to beat league rivals Canajoharie and Fort Plain by single digits in the past week. As teams adjust to Saratoga Catholic’s relentless full-court pressure defense, Mantia knows his team will have to make its own adjustments to play at the high pace he prefers.

“People are using the same formula trying to slow us down as much as possible,” Mantia said. “Packing in the zone, packing the press. We want to see if we can speed them up with some trapping to keep it at our pace of the game.”

If Saratoga Catholic can beat O-E-S Friday night, it will give them an undefeated record heading into the Christmas break. The rest will give the squad some time to work on things but also a chance to test itself against more quality non-league competition.

Class C Saratoga Catholic will host Class AA Bishop Maginn in the first round of its holiday tournament on Dec. 27 then play either Class B Stillwater or Class B Voorheesville the following day.

“We just need to remember why we’re undefeated — playing hard defense, playing together, playing as a team,” Spicer said.